‘Chinese democracy by 2020’

Decade will see political upheaval: Senior Communist party figure

BEIJING: The final frontier of communism will be breached before the next decade is over. China, its most successful working example, will reshape itself into a working democracy by 2020, one of the country’s most influential reformers has forecasted.

Zhou Tianyong, an adviser to the Communist Party’s Central Committee and one of its most liberal voices, told the Daily Telegraph that “by 2020, China will finish its political and institutional reforms”. He added: “We have a 12-year plan to establish a democratic platform. There will be public involvement at all government levels.” Zhou also predicted “extensive public participation in policy-making, such as drafting legislation”.

Mr Zhou is deputy head of research at the Central Party School, the most important institution for training senior leaders. President Hu Jintao is among its former directors.
China already has elections in over 660,000 villages, although these are often rigged.

However, there are already small signs of change, with larger cities, such as Nanjing and Guangzhou.